Search Engines - Many companies that are selling low cost search engine submission services are telling people that they need to resubmit their site every month or even as much as twice a month. You can imagine how overloaded the search engines would be with new listings if everyone did this. Once your site is listed and well ranked it will most likely stay that way for a long time. Check your listings before you resubmit your web site, don't slow down the engines with excessive submissions. You can expect it to take about 2 months for all your new listings to show up after you submit them.

META TAGS - It is not difficult to get your pages ranked high if you learn how to properly use meta tags and titles. Meta tags are not visible in your web browser when you view a page on-line. They are inside the head tags and visible in the source code. Not all search engines read meta tags, but they are very important to the ones that do.

Title - Many people put the business name in the title. In most cases people do not know who you are, they are using a search engine to find a product or service. Using words in your title that people are searching for can improve your search engine placement. Houston Texas Real Estate Listings is a better title than Lomax Realty. It uses the keywords that people are searching for.

Meta Tag Description: - Keep this down to about 25 words. This text is often what will show up next to your listing in the search engines. Use this to tell people about your product or service, not to say what a wonderful company you are. You want to have words in your description that people are typing in the search engines as well as give people a quick introduction to what your site is about. Saying "We are the best company in the world" is not going to impress anyone... they know you wrote this.
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Learn how to improve your web site position in the search engines. Meta tags can be used to achieve higher search engine placement.">

Meta Tag Keywords - Use phrases not single words for your keyword tags. Repeating the same text over and over is considered spamming and the search engines will penalize you for this. You need to find different ways to say the same thing and not repeat any one word more than 7 times. It takes some time and thought to do this properly. Every page on your site can be tagged differently. Below is an example for a real estate company. If someone types Houston into a search engine it is going to bring up an enormous amount of pages. If you type in real estate, again you will have an enormous amount of pages. Narrow it down to "Houston real estate" and you are getting closer to finding what you want. This is why using phrases for keywords will get you closer to the top.
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="Houston Texas, Houston real estate, Houston real estate listings, Houston homes for sale, Houston real estate companies, Houston home listings, Houston residential real estate, on-line real estate listings">

Do you really need to be listed with 10,000 search engines? How many search engines do you yourself use? Hand submit your site to the most popular engines. This is where the majority of your hits will come from. Look for other sites that will give you a link. There are many local business directories on the web where you can list your site for free. You just have to take the time to look for them.

To submit your site go to the pages listed below and look for a link that says: add url, submit your site, register your site or something similar. I have included notes to help you find the link. Of course it is possible that they may change the location at any time. If you don't see it look around.

AltaVista
Submit A Site located at bottom center of page.

NBCi
Submit a Site located at bottom center of page..

Yahoo
This one takes some time as you must first find the best catagory. It is very important to be listed in this directory. Click the how to suggest a site link at the lower left of the page for instructions. Sites listed under regional area of the directory are free. Other sites cost $200.00. Yahoo is well worth the fee. I have seen traffic double and triple after being listed in Yahoo. $200.00 doesn't guarantee a listing, only that they will look at your site. Be sure to read the guidelines and don't submit an under construction web site!

Even though Yahoo is a directory your keywords and meta tags are very important. Some people will click on directory headings to find what they are looking for. Many will just type in a search phrase and sites listed in the directory will show up that are keyed for that search term.

Google
When a search is done in Yahoo it will return listings from the Yahoo directory and then go to web page matches. These are sites that are listed at google. This is your second most important listing and best of all.. it's free! Click on All About Google then look for a link on the right hand side of page that says Submitting Your Site

AOL
. Very important to be listed here, this one brings a ton of traffic. Submit through dmoz.org Look around and find the best catagory for your listing.

Excite
Submit a Site link on lower left side of page.

LookSmart
Submit a Site located at the bottom of the page. Cost $200.00.

MSN
Submit a Site link under search box near the top of the page. If you pay the $200 to looksmart you will also be listed here. You can still get a free listing in the web pages section. After you click the Submit a Site link, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to where it says Web Pages Submit, this is where you will find the link for a free listing.

Lycos
Add Your Site to Lycos link located at bottom left of page

Direct Hit
Add URL link at bottom right side of page.

Hot Bot
Submit Web Site located at bottom of green box on left side of page.

Fast Search
Submit Your Site link located on left side of page at the bottom.

What U Seek
add url link located at the bottom of the page.

Infohiway
add a link located at top of page under Infohiway logo

After your page is listed you need to track your hits. You need to know which search engines are bringing you the most traffic. You need to search for your site and see how it ranks. If you don't like your ranking, change your meta tags and title and resubmit. You can get to the top if you work at it!